Prepubescent girl subjected to sexual acts filmed in a truck parked in Union County

NEWARK — U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman alleged that a pedophile repeatedly subjected a prepubescent girl to sexual acts while filming the abuse in the rear of a cab of a tractor trailer truck parked in Union County.

The victim is not being identified in the case, which has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler. Rios kidnapped a child younger than 13 to sexually assault her on numerous occasions, prosecutors said.

According to the documents filed and statements made in court:

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Rios’s home in Newark on Feb. 5, 2013. A forensic review of the computer equipment seized revealed several video files of child pornography which appear to be self-produced and allegedly depict Rios on camera engaging in sexually explicit conduct with a prepubescent female in the rear of a cab of a tractor trailer truck.

The government intends to keep two computers, four cameras and more than a dozen hard disk drives that were seized by agents at the defendant’s home because Rios allegedly used them for producing images of child sexual abuse.

Law enforcement officers identified and interviewed the girl, who allegedly said Rios would periodically drive her to his tractor trailer truck in Union County, where he would undress her and have sexual contact and sexual relations with her and record the encounters.

Authorities say the victim asserts that Rios allegedly threatened to hurt her family if she told anyone.

Each charge of sexual exploitation of a child carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Rios remains detained.

Fishman credited special agents of the FBI Newark Division’s Child Exploitation Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford in Newark, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of acting Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray, and the N.J. Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory with the investigation leading to these charges.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Alfonzo Walsman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Hackensack attorney Brian J. Neary, the defense counsel representing Rios, has been a lawyer since 1976, and was been recognized in Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers and US News and World Report.